Referees are human beings subject to social pressures just like the rest of us. "As Jon Wertheim, senior writer for Sports Illustrated and author of the new book “Scorecasting,” explained in an interview last week, referees have been shown to call certain fouls a whopping 50 percent less in the final moments of close games." http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-kno...-influences-of-human-behavior-on-sports/8371/ http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/14063/bias-in-officiating http://www.sloansportsconference.com/?p=2885 http://freakonomics.com/2012/01/31/swallowing-the-whistle-a-guest-post-by-tobias-moskowitz/
See post above. I was more alluding to end-of-big-game situations, than the entirety of a game, let alone the whole playoffs. Unless there's a blatant bludgeoning, most refs don't have the balls to blow the whistle on a 50/50 call and be remembered as the guy who put the championship on the freethrow line or messed up a superstar's big moment. Big enough stars get the treatment on the road as well. See: Reggie Miller & Jordan push-off no-calls, Lebron & Wade travel no-calls. Harden is knocking on that door. All I'm saying is if Harden wants to attack the basket for a game winner on the last possession, he's better off finishing strong and daring the refs to call a charge, than looking for the refs to give him the eurostep touch foul. Btw, I'm saying the refs tend to swallow the whistle at the end of games, and you provided an example that supports that.
There are tons of examples of end game situations where the refs do not swallow the whistle. Heck, the last game against the Knicks was won because the refs called a foul. Harden has been terrific in the 4th quarter so far this season. Unless your point is that Harden only scores by going to the free throw line, I don't understand the notion that Harden is useless in the clutch. Furthermore, why does it matter whether the context was end of possession? If Harden scores 8 points with 5 minutes left in the 4th, those 8 points are equally as important as 8 points scored by Harden with 2 minutes left in the 4th. You are singling out a situation where the majority of players in this league have a poor scoring percentage in. For example, a 2011 article by ESPN highlighted that Kobe Bryant only shoots 31.3% when the game is tied or trialing by 1 or 2 points with 24 seconds left on the clock. http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/24200/the-truth-about-kobe-bryant-in-crunch-time Bottomline is, Harden is currently one of the top scorers in the 4th quarter. He also has an incredible shooting percentage in the 4th quarter, and his highest scoring quarter is on average the 4th.
not really because he didn't initialize the play. the ball handler out top initializes it and once the ball goes into Dwight, the players around the perimeter moves to specified locations. the issue is if Dwight pounds the ball instead of quickly being aggressive with the post move. Dwight still has a lot to learn in the post such as taking what the defender gives him and knowing where his teammates are. he is a capable passer but he sometimes has already made up his mind he is going to try to score and may miss open perimeter players. the whole inside-out scheme only works if the ball first goes inside and then on occasion the ball goes back out.
